1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air moving devices, and in particular, to blowers of the type which are used with high efficiency (e.g., 90% or higher efficiency) furnaces for drawing air from outside of a building into the furnace to support combustion and to expel combustion exhaust products outside of a building. More particularly, the present invention relates to the mounting lugs and fasteners of the blower housing which are used to mount the blower housing to a furnace.
2. Description of the Related Art
In high efficiency furnaces, standard chimney air-draw effects are not sufficient to assure the required air flow through the furnace heat exchangers, and therefore, high efficiency furnaces utilize draft inducer blowers to provide sufficient air flow through the furnace. In particular, the blowers of high efficiency furnaces pull flue gases through the furnace heat exchangers and then push the flue gases outwardly through exhaust piping to the exterior of the building.
Existing furnaces include a wall or collector box having a standard arrangement of mounting holes which are configured in a generally circular pattern about an exhaust opening in the wall. A blower housing is attached to the wall using a plurality of fasteners, typically threaded bolts or screws, which are inserted through mounting lugs in the blower housing and into the mounting holes in the furnace wall. Typically, the mounting lugs of the blower housing include slot-like openings through which the fasteners are inserted, wherein the elongated, slot-like shape of the openings permit a limited amount of adjustment with respect to the positioning of the fasteners.
A problem with this arrangement is that during mounting of the blower housing to the furnace wall in the factory or in the field, it is necessary for the installer to initially align the mounting lugs of the blower housing with the mounting holes in the furnace wall and, while maintaining the aligned position of the blower housing, manually locate and insert the fasteners one by one through the openings in the mounting lugs followed by threading each fasteners into its corresponding mounting hole using a suitable tool. This process, which requires manual insertion of the fasteners through the mounting lugs, typically slows the speed of mounting the blower housing to a furnace wall.
What is needed is an apparatus and method which permits the blower housing of a furnace blower to be installed to the wall of a furnace in a more efficient manner.